This invention relates to apparatus for separating magnetic ore from gangue, and particularly to improvements in magnetic head-pulley separators.
The commonly used separator has a horizontal or an upwardly inclined belt conveyor with a magnetic head-pulley at its upper end. At normal conveyor speeds magnetic particles adhere to, and are carried on the belt to an ore chute under the head-pulley. Non-magnetic gangue particles are thrown off the conveyor into another chute outwardly of the head-pulley.
It has been shown that production can be increased by running the belt at increased speeds and also increase the efficiency of separation. The higher speed and resultant thinner layer of ore increases the chances for a clean and high capacity separation. Although some magnetic particles will be thrown off the conveyor with the gangue, they will have different trajectories than the gangue, due to their magnetic attraction to the head-pulley. Thus, a splitter device appropriately placed outwardly of the head-pulley, will direct "thrown" magnetic particles into the ore chute, while non-magnetic gangue particles will continue to be collected by the splitter. However, the degree of separation and recovery at higher speeds can be further improved. Other factors affect the magnetic separation of the particles, not just their magnetic ore content.
It is therefore a primary object of this invention to provide improvements in magnetic pulley-head separators, so as to obtain better separation and recovery of magnetic ore at higher than normal belt speeds.